Hot water heater quit and wont start

[moonlitcoyote]

Hi all, I am totally new to this forum and need some help.

I have an 85 Winnebago Chieftan 27RU that I just bought 2 weeks ago and I have been checking out as many systems as I can figure out. Today I had the hot water heater running and while I was messing around with some other things it went out. So I hit the switch above the stove again to re-start it but nothing happened. The light doesnt even come on now. All the other switches and lights on the panel work so I am assuming it must have something to do with the water heater itself but I am at a total loss as to what to check. Any help or suggestions would be totally appreciated, thank you

[tiinytina]

Use the search feature on this page upper right side... most likely if you didn't fill the propane tank the PO left it empty... 
Tina

[moonlitcoyote]

I did use the search feature and didnt find anything useful. Also, I just filled the propane and gas tank yesterday But even if it was out of propane, the light on the control panel would still light up.

[jkilbert]

start with the simple stuff first. you said you have gas, so that's one down. check power next. is the coach plugged in /batteries good? check your fuses. next thing is your water heater gas only or gas/electric and what does the switch control. on my dad's coach the switch inside controls the electronic ignition while a switch on the heater itself is for the electric heating element. stand outside by the heater while someone turns on the switch if the igniter is working you should hear a tick sound as it sparks. just a few things to look at.
john

[moonlitcoyote]

Hi John thanks for responding.

I guess I didnt put enough info into my first post, I am usually good at fixing things so I always forget to mention things that I think are obvious, sorry

It is electric ignition, It is plugged in and the batteries are fully charged. The water heater is gas only. I have checked my fuse panel but didnt find any fuses for the water heater. When I first tried to start the water heater after buying it, the ignitor was not working. But the light on the panel was. It lights up when turning the switch on then if the water heater fails to start the light is supposed to come back on and stay on. I fixed the ignitor and got it working, but now as I mentioned nothing works. I turn the switch on and the light doesnt come on and the ignitor does not spark. It seems to me that somehow it is not getting any power. I am going to take the panel apart today to see if one of my wires shorted out.... MaryJane 

[85winnerb]

My water heater did the same thing, I found the switch on the panel to be the problem.

[tiinytina]

I've had both issues from "nothing" to always on...

On our last heater the switch went bad.. I replaced the switch inside the coach you can get them pretty cheap online for about $10-15 in RV stores.  Easy to pop out and change the wires over.

The control board in the heater is also easy to remove.. most RV places can and will test the board for free....  as the boards also go bad (ours did). Boards run about $125 depending on model.   

also... check to see that the propane tank is "On"....  I've headed out lots of times and found that I forgot to turn the tank on. When stored we manually close the propane valve on the tank and will they fill it they usually manually close the valve.  In the keep it simple train of thought make sure you have the coach batteries turned on.... been there done that  D:oH!... and had a bad battery relay so switch was on but... solenoid stuck closed so no power...

Tina

[Elandan2]

You may also want to check the temperature limit switch located on the back of the water heater.  It has a small reset button.  If it has tripped, there will be no power to the ignitor board and the light on the switch will not light.  Rick

[moonlitcoyote]

Thanks all I figured it out. When I went out this morning, it was working again. When I had it running yesterday I never did get hot water and just figured that it had not been running long enough. Well today I looked at the tank itself and found 3 valves on it, I assume 1 is the cold water shut off and the other 2 seem to be mixing valves. So after messing with the valves I found that I had hot water. So not sure how it all works but I guess that yesterday it shut off because it had reached the max temp in the tank so shut itself off until the water in the tank cooled. I cant begin to imagine why the PO had it set to not get any hot water at all. But glad I figured that out.

[TommyM]

Those are probably bypass valves so you can winterize the RV with pink antifreeze without putting six gallons of the stuff in your water heater.

Tommy

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Yep, bypass valves for winterization.  Glad you figured it out and that it didn't cost you anything to fix...awesome!

Kev